It’s episode 3 of ef! How does Chihiro live with her memory condition where she forgets everything every 13 hours? Also, Hiro gets busted, but for what and by whom?

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The episode starts off with Chihiro reading out of her diary what happened to her: she was involved in a traffic accident 4 years ago which cost her her left eye, and will cause her to lose her memory every 13 hours. She instructs herself to read the diary every morning and to write everything that happens to her every day in the diary so that she will remember it.

She then shift to Renji reading the diary, reading how in instructs Chihiro to try to avoid strangers, if possible, and if she does meet someone, to describe them as exactly as possible. Chihiro then tells Renji that she first described him as a “small older boy in a school uniform who comes at the station around 3pm,” and tells him that, if he came wearing something else, or at a different time, she wouldn’t recognize him. At first Renji is confused about the “older boy” part, considering they’re about the same age, but Chihiro tells him that, from her point of view, time stopped 4 years ago.

The two start walking down the beach, and Chihiro tells Renji that she can remember from when she gets up at 7am to 8pm at night, but after that, every hour she forgets an hour worth of memories, and that by the time she wakes up, she’ll have forgotten up to 6pm the night before. However, there is a way around the memory loss: if she recalls something that she remembers, then she will remember it again for another 13 hours, so if there is a memory that is important to her, she will try to re-remember it in order to “reset” her memory clock on that memory.

As a result, to help maximize her memory, she reads the diary before she goes to bed, then thinks back on the things in the diary that she might have forgotten so that she can remember it all when she gets up the next morning. She then tells Renji that she doesn’t go to school and doesn’t have any friends, so she “spaced out” at the station so she wouldn’t have to remember anything, telling Renji that she’s living such a worthless life. She then tells Renji that she’s going to tell him a joke…

Later that night, Renji arrives home, where Renji’s rather youthful looking mother has cooked dinner. She tells him that she heard he has to fill out a career interest survey, but he tells her that he can’t decide what to put on it. She then has Renji deliver a pot of food to Kuze, a neighbor who has been gone for the last 3 months.

At school the next day, Renji tries to decide whether it’s OK for him to see Chihiro, worried that he’s troubling her due to her disability. It starts to rain outside, and Renji decides that Chihiro probably won’t come that day. He then recalls the “joke” Chihiro told him the night before: she once thought about how she could disappear without troubling anyone, but gave up that idea because, what she is most afraid of isn’t losing her own memories, but other people forgetting their memories of her.

Renji then wonders if there is anything he can do for Chihiro, and then remembers her wish: to be able to write a complete story as her “current self.” The next day Renji arrives at the train station, but instead of Chihiro, Himura is there waiting for him. Himura tells Renji that Chihiro has caught a cold, and wishes to tell him that she’s sorry that she can’t make it.

Himura then asks Renji why he didn’t come yesterday. He tells him that he made a promise to Chihiro to “see her tomorrow” and that Chihiro was waiting there until midnight. Himura then explains that Chihiro uses the farewell “see you tomorrow” as a way to connect the “her” of one day to the “her” of the next day, and so she takes the statement quite literally and seriously. This revelation makes Renji quite upset at himself.

Meanwhile, Kei is jogging and runs into Hiro sitting on a bench in front of the school. She remarks that Hiro is at school early, but he tells her that he finished the manga manuscript the night before, and since it was morning by then, he just came straight to school. Later in the day, Hiro is sitting on the roof when Miyako shows up. After asking for Hiro to give her a key to the roof since she likes it so much (he refuses), she decides to drag him off somewhere.

Down in the audio/visual room, the club that Kyosuke is in is watching a video made from his video shots, but a couple people in the group don’t like it, so Kyosuke leaves in frustration and the girl who always seems to hang out with him chases after him.

In the mean time, Miyako and Hiro walk through town then go to a cafe to eat. Hiro asks Miyako why she skips school so much, and she tells him it’s because it’s boring, and she likes not being bored and doing things she likes. Suddenly Mizuki shows up and asks who Miyako is. However, Hiro can’t remember her full name – only her last name, agitating Miyako. Miyako demands that Hiro call her by her first name from now on and Mizuki tells Hiro that he shouldn’t call his girlfriend by her last name anyway, and Hiro corrects her that she’s not his girlfriend. However, after arguing for a few moments, Hiro and Mizuki find that Miyako has left.

In the mean time, Kyosuke’s girl friend tries to tell him that he should understand that everyone wants to win a competition they’re entering the film into, but Kyosuke gets frustrated that the contest is all everyone is thinking about. He then tells her that he gets bored easily now, and he’s not sure what he wants to do. His girlfriend then tells him that they should break up, since she doesn’t understand him anymore. After pondering for a moment, he agrees, and tells her that he’s leaving the club as well.

Kyosuke then walks off into a part of town that’s still in ruins from an earthquake in the past. There, church girl shows up and says that Kyosuke shouldn’t be there looking at the past. However, he tells her that he’s always looking forwards and he knows what he wants: to take the shots that he wants – a shot of a dream. However, before he knows it, the girl has disappeared.

Meanwhile, after her run, Kei is messaging Chihiro when she suddenly gets a message from Mizuki. The next morning, Kei makes Hiro come with her to practice and confronts him about skipping school the day before. Surprised that Kei knew about that, Hiro tells her that he just felt too sleepy and went home to sleep. However, Kei knows that he’s lying since Mizuki told her that Hiro was out with Miyako.

Kei warns Hiro that his attendance record is already dangerously low, and hanging out with Miyako, who is famous for how much she skips school, might be bad for him. However, Hiro rebukes her, telling her not to bash someone she doesn’t know. Kei asks Hiro if he knows her well, and he says he doesn’t because he only met her at Christmas, which was less than a month prior. However, Kei, who had been expecting Hiro to attend the party with her on Christmas, gets upset that he apparently stood her up so he could be with Miyako…

We had significant movement in both of the primary relationships in this episode. My wish in my writeup from episode 2 was granted, and we got a full rundown of how Chihiro’s memory handicap works. However, both Chihiro and Renji think they are being a burden on each other, so that is something that may obviously get in the way of their relationship.

Meanwhile, Kei is suspecting that her Hiro is straying off the chosen path toward Miyako and is none too happy about it. Unfortunately for her, while she has a huge crush on Hiro, the feelings don’t appear to be returned. Of course, the same could be said for Miyako, who was clearly upset at the news that she wasn’t, in fact, Hiro’s girlfriend. If Hiro isn’t careful, he may end up getting Makotoed.

In any case, I wonder when all of these relationships will start getting mixed together. Obviously the Hiro relationship and the Renji relationship are related in that they each have some level of relationship with one of a pair of twin sisters, and Kyosuke and Hiro are at least acquaintances. However, I keep expecting these relationships to start intersecting each other relatively soon.